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A Sight for Sore Eyes | Ollie Quinn

Ollie Quinn have just opened a brand new store on Park Street in Bristol and we went along to have a look around, choose some glasses and try not to make a complete spectacle of ourselves. If you are sat there thinking, girls, who are Ollie Quinn? Well, let us tell you. They’re easily the most stylish, chic and sassy independent opticians you will ever visit (if you’re lucky enough to live in London, Bristol, Bath, Brighton or Leeds). All of the frames are unique to the business, as they are designed and produced in-house and they are pretty damn affordable too! £98 to be exact, and that covers EVERYTHING. Spec-tacular! Gone are the days of choosing cheaper frames to keep the cost down, and then getting hit with a bill for anti-glare, scratch-resistant coating and a kitchen sink or two. Not at OQ, you’ll never leave having to pay more than £98 for your frames. We took along our current prescriptions, but a 30 minute eye exam costs £20. Raise your glasses to that.

The guys at the Park Street store were so friendly and helpful, we left feeling like we had made a couple of new friends. We had a chat about our personal style, which really helped us to choose our new frames (and my goodness was it hard to choose!). Thankfully, the staff managed to give us some honest feedback on the frames we had picked without making us feel self conscious. They even let the babies try on some frames and as you can see below, they looked so cheeky, we’ll really have to keep our eyes on those little ladies. Sorry, these puns really couldn’t get any cornea.

I went for a statement square frame called ‘Daniel’* in brown zebra, which you can see in close up here, and I absolutely love them. Even though they are oversized, they’re not at all heavy, and I’ve had so many compliments since swapping from my old smaller frames (seen here). Jo chose a pair of the rounder cat-eye ‘Jelka’* frames in pink spice. Nice. Jo knew she wanted something colourful, so mentioned to the staff that she often chooses coloured glasses (example here) that clash with lots of the things that she wears and aren’t always work appropriate. We all agreed that these frames will go with everything, look smart and the subtle pink adds the element of colour she was after.

One last perk that will probably only interest mums with pushchairs, but is useful to note, OQ is all on one level! I had to cancel an appointment at an opticians on Whiteladies Road recently, as without a lift or buggy store, I couldn’t get upstairs for the eye test! A real eye opener, I’m sure you’ll agree.